Colorado Springs News, Sports & Business

Colorado companies get help from innovators

DENVER — A nonprofit organization that supplies office space and help developing finance and business plans is helping new companies thrive in Colorado.
Officials in Loveland, Fort Collins and Golden, along four local banks and Colorado State University, are backing the company incubator...

DENVER — A nonprofit organization that supplies office space and help developing finance and business plans is helping new companies thrive in Colorado.

Officials in Loveland, Fort Collins and Golden, along four local banks and Colorado State University, are backing the company incubator called Innosphere (INN'-oh-sphere). The 15-year-old organization's annual budget is about $1 million.

According to the Denver Post (http://tinyurl.com/m87wkap ), about 90 percent of Innosphere's companies survive at least five years. Managers say the odds are improved at Innosphere because it's more selective. In 2013, it chose 14 startups from 125 applicants.

The U.S. Department of Commerce says about 40 percent of the estimated 1 million people who start businesses fail in the first year.